The Telegraph’s Charlie Wilson looks at five things we learnt from Saturday’s loss.

Cameron Burgess deserves to start

The thing with Cameron Burgess is that he never even lost his place in the team.

After only two games at the start of the season, Graham Alexander switched from a back three to a back four – meaning one centre-back had to miss out. Rory McArdle was the new man brought in and was made captain and Murray Wallace is arguably the best defender Scunthorpe has seen this decade – Burgess was a victim of circumstance.

Then in October, Conor Townsend picked up an injury which would rule him out for several weeks and Alexander deployed Murray Wallace at left-back, bringing Burgess back in at centre-back.

It was at this point, where Burgess would begin to really impress and perform on a consistent basis, as he played in the Iron’s next 15 games.

After being sent off against Southend United, the 22-year-old was suspended for the Fleetwood game which the Iron performed well and won the game – Burgess once again a victim of circumstance.

In these last two games, Burgess has come back into the side in place of Conor Townsend and has put in two impressive performance.

With 10 games to go, Alexander has to find a way of getting all his best players on the pitch and at this point does Cameron Burgess really deserve to be dropped – or does one of the other centre-backs?

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Was it just me who was surprised with how well Craig Davies played on Saturday? I couldn’t believe it when Richie Wellens decided to bring him off, but they did go onto score two goals afterwards…

But I digress, Davies held up the ball throughout the game, getting the better of Rory McArdle and linking up well with Duckens Nazon and Jack Byrne.

On more than a few occasions this season targetmen strikers have had fantastic games against Scunthorpe’s back four – Kieffer Moore, Tom Eaves, Stefan Payne, Michael Smith and Craig Davies all spring to mind as strikers who gave the Iron issues.

Scunthorpe’s four centre-backs are all above 6’1 and have the attributes and capabilities to perform better against the bigger strikers.

Should the Iron make the play-offs, they could come up against two of the aforementioned strikers in the semi-finals in Stefan Payne (Shrewsbury) or Michael Smith (Rotherham) and they will certainly need to do a better job against them.

Ryan Yates battles with former Scunthorpe United striker Craig Davies Picture: David Haber

Josh Morris ineffective spell continues

On too many occasions this season, Morris has gone three or four game spells without being able to produce in the final third and struggling to get involved - It is fair to say that he is currently in one of those spells.

Morris was absolutely fantastic against Fleetwood last month, even though he could have scored five or six goals, he and Holmes were at the heart of everything Scunthorpe were doing offensively and were big reasons why the Iron won that game.

Holmes has consistently performed at that level, whilst Morris has not.

There is absolutely no-one doubting his abilities. At this point, everyone in League One knows what Scunthorpe’s number 11 is capable of when he has the ball at his feet.

But his recent production in the final third has not been good enough, whilst Adelakun has spent time on the bench.

Alexander brought Adelakun back into the side on Saturday whilst playing both Holmes and Morris.

It will be interesting to see how he decides to line-up from this point on – will one of the three be sacrificed to fit in a 4-4-2? Or will Alexander stick with one striker up top and play his three attacking midfielders?

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He’s put together a fantastic late run to become a candidate for Scunthorpe’s Player of the Season, at this point he is certainly one of the frontrunners.

Although it just did not look like it was happening for Scunthorpe on Saturday, Holmes never gave up and always looked to make things happen whenever he could get on the ball.

When the Iron are breaking forward, he constantly makes the right run and drifts into space where he knows he can be effective.

What was most impressive with his performance on Saturday was that he showed a different side to his game – his strength of character. Holmes kept running at the Latics defence despite some physical treatment from Anthony Gerrard, Kean Bryan and Dan Gardner all game.

Holmes has become the Iron’s most dangerous and productive player in the final third and the Iron will need him to continue this form up until the end of the season.

Duane Holmes Picture: DAVID HABER

A striker like Eoin Doyle would have been perfect in January

Eoin Doyle would have been a perfect replacement for Paddy Madden, and that is exactly what Scunthorpe needs right now.

He’s not that quick, he’s not that strong and he’s not that athletic – but he knows where the back of the goal is and his goals will probably keep Oldham in League One.

He has one of the best shot to goal ratios in the League, and he knows exactly where to be so that he can be effective.

The Irishmen only came for 25 minutes on Saturday after missing three months with blood clots. He needed one chance, and he took it. That is the definition of clinical and that is how you win football games.

Scunthorpe did try and sing Doyle in January but he cose to go back to Boundary Park.

Scunthorpe will need the likes of Ivan Toney, Lee Novak, Tom Hopper and the attacking midfielders to step up and be more clinical during these last 10 games so that they can assure their place in the play-off spots.